Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MARY'S BIRTHDAY, by FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MARY'S BIRTHDAY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: She is at rest
Last Line: Her anthem they shall swell, her joy they too shall know.
Subject(s): Birthdays; Mary. Mother Of Jesus; Women In The Bible; Virgin Mary


SHE is at rest,
In God's own presence blest,
Whom, while with us, this day we loved to greet;
Her birthdays o'er,
She counts the years no more;
Time's footfall is not heard along the golden street.

When we would raise
A hymn of birthday praise,
The music of our hearts is faint and low;
Fear, doubt, and sin
Make dissonance within;
And pure soul-melody no child of earth may know.

That strange "new song,"
Amid a white-robed throng,
Is gushing from her harp in living tone:
Her seraph voice,
Tuned only to rejoice,
Floats upwards to the emerald-arched throne.

No passing cloud
Her loveliness may shroud;
The beauty of her youth may never fade;
No line of care
Her sealed brow may wear;
The joy-gleam of her eye no dimness e'er may shade.

No stain is there
Upon the robes they wear
Within the gates of pearl which she hath passed;
Like woven light,
All beautiful and bright,
Eternity upon those robes no shade may cast.

No sin-born thought
May in that home be wrought
To trouble the clear fountain of her heart;
No tear, no sigh,
No pain, no death, be nigh
Where she hath entered in, no more to "know in part."

Her faith is sight,
Her hope is full delight,
The shadowy veil of time is rent in twain:
Her untold bliss --
What thought can follow this!
To her to live was Christ, to die indeed is gain.

Her eyes have seen
The King, no veil between,
In blood-dipped vesture gloriously arrayed:
No earth-breathed haze
Can dim that rapturous gaze;
She sees Him face to face on whom her guilt was laid.

A little while,
And they whose loving smile
Had melted 'neath the touch of lonely woe,
Shall reach her home
Beyond the star-built dome;
Her anthem they shall swell, her joy they too shall know.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net